Tuition rally at the Capitol

About 75 University of Texas at Austin students marched to the Capitol on Thursday to lobby lawmakers to pass a bill that would freeze tuition rates at public universities for two years.

The students, working together under the name “Tuition Relief Now! ,” are asking lawmakers to pass a measure that would place a two-year moratorium on tuition increases and require any future hikes to be approved by students and be based on cost of living.

Tuition and fees at public, four-year universities have increased an average of 53 percent since lawmakers gave university regents full authority to set tuition rates in 2003, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

State Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-Mission, and state Rep. Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, authored the bills the students are pushing lawmakers to pass.